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By Chris Young A rare medal has been sold for £47,000, described as an exceptional sum by North Rode-

ased auctio-neers Adam Partridge.

The silver Distinguished Flying Medal was a lot in the two-day sale last Thursday and Friday.

It was awarded to Sgt orman Bailey (R.A, 8 Flight, 3 Wing, Army Air Corps) in June 1966.

Sgt Bailey, from Warrington, received the medal for his actions and iloting skills in the Radfan Campaign of the 1960s. The Royal Artillery officer was stationed in the Wadi Tiban area of Aden in 1966. He was piloting a helicopter that egan taking enemy fire and managed to take the crew out of the danger zone.

The campaign was an insurgency in British-controlled areas of Saudi Arabia. The area is now known as Yemen.

The lot also included a cotemporary “London Gazette” that detailed the awarding of the medal, photographs of the damaged helicopter, letters and telegrams of congratulations f rom senior officers.

Valuer Bill Forrest said: “The only other medal of this type we know of was sold some t ime last year as part of a medal group. That went for £115,000. This i s an except ional result for a s ingle medal.

“There haven’t been many awarded s ince WW2. We haven’t been able to get a f i rm f igure, but i t i s probably around 20 to 30.

“There was quite a bit of pre sale interest in this medal and we thought we might get £20- £30,000.

“This i s the highest price we have ever got for a medal;

COURT APPEARANCES

The following cases have been heard recently in South Cheshire Magistrates Court sitting in Crewe.

Jason Swift-Clowes, (40), of 7, Buttermere Court, Congleton, was fined £375, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £15 and cost courts of £85 and was banned from driving for 35 days speeding on the M55 in Preston on 29th April.

Malcolm Peter Ashley, (52), of 12, Third Avenue, Sandbach, was fined £575, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £15 and court costs of £85 and banned from driving for 36 months for driving on Latham Road in Sandbach on 2nd September for drink driving. When tested, he had 156mcgms of alcohol in 100mls of breath. The legal limit is 35mcgms mcgms.

Kevin Richard Dingle, (31), of Colehurst Lodge, Colehurst,

Market Drayton, was fined £500 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £15 and court costs of £85 for possessing 13.1g of diamorphine at Eva Street, in Sandbach, on 18th February.

Isaac Parton, (19), of Prospect Cottage, Four Lane Ends, London Road, Smallwood, Sandbach, was fined £100, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £15 and court costs of £85 and banned from driving for 12 months for drinkdriving on Mill Street, Crewe, on 31st August. When tested, he had 52mcgmsof alcohol in 100mls of breath. The legal limit is 35mcgms.

Simon Andrew West, (20), of 11, West Grove, Alsager, was ordered to complete 60 hours’ unpaid work and to pay court costs of £85 for stealing a CD from Asda in Crewe on 1st September.

The Distinguished Flying Medal that sold for £47,000.

i t i s a remarkable price.”

The Distinguished Flying Medal was awarded to pilots “for acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst f lying in active operations against the enemy.”

Other medal highlights at the auction included a WW2 Distinguished Flying Cross at £2,100, a Russian medal group at £1,250 and a World War One group at £860.

Special breeding rams sale had an excellent turnout

Following enquiries from several vendors and purchasers, auctioneers Frank Marshall and Co decided to hold a special sale of breeding rams on a Thursday evening, alongside their weekly Thursday horticultural sale.

They received an excellent response from vendors, who put forward in excess of 200 rams of assorted breeds, which consisted principally of Texel, Charollais and Continental crosses.

The entry, larger than initially anticipated, gave some concerns, but purchasers responded magnificently, with a huge crowd gathering around the ring, and remaining right through the sale.

The atmosphere generated was therefore considerable, and although there were no very high headline prices, fast, consistent trade resulted, with a very high percentage clearance. The top price of 500gns was paid for an outstanding three-year old pedigree Texel from Messrs Kirkham and Bourne, Stoke-onTrent, who also saw the best of their shearling Texels make 480gns, with several other to 450gns. Charollais breeder David Lewis, a regular supporter of Chelford’s pedigree Charollais sales saw the best of his excellent pen of lamb rams make to 450gns, with others to 420gns and two to 400gns, with another local breeder Geoff Biddulph seeing the best of his pen of Charollais ram lambs to 380gns.

Older stronger ram lambs ready to turn out and work immediately were in a considerable amount of demand with Messrs Darlington from Buxton seeing their Texel x Charollais two Shear make 380gns and their Suffolk two Shear make 330gns.

Generally, all vendors were rewarded, the only rams being unsold were those with perhaps unrealistically high expectations of price.